History Paper Burial Practices, Concept of After Life Ancient Romans and Egyptians

The concept of afterlife existed among many ancient civilizations. It was met as a way of understanding the present or as a way to predict the future depending on their needs. As such, in order to explain the unknown phenomenon that impacted their daily life, early tribes saw natural events as simple as the rain and the winds or birth and death and regarded them to be controlled by supernatural powers related to the gods, demons, the moon, the sun or other external driving forces. Ancient people sought protection for survival and power to maintain order with the tribes by practicing rituals which were aimed to invoke the spirit of the deceased. However, as civilizations evolved with time, their beliefs became more complex and profound. Take ancient Romans and Egyptians for instance, they both believed in the afterlife and shared similar underlying ideas; nevertheless, their way to prepare the deceased for the next life and funeral services differed in many ways. To illustrate their practices, I have chosen two artifacts displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met): a coffin from Ancient Egypt and a cinerary urn from Ancient Roman’s times. Both pieces reflect different ways of treating the corpses of their deceased and prepare the dead for the journey to the afterlife which undoubtedly was a long and elaborated process.

Ancient Romans and Egyptians demonstrated their firm conviction in the afterlife through solemn funeral services and burial rituals. Unlike the Egyptians who treasured the dead bodies and preserved them in sarcophagus or coffins, Romans cremated the dead bodies and kept the ashes in urns because they perceived the life in physical world to be short and temporary. When a person died, the spirit was released from the body and traveled to the afterlife. The only purpose of the physical body was to host the soul for a period long enough to prepare one to live a life free of suffering in the other world. Souls were sent to different...

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...﻿The Daily Life of an AncientEgyptian Peasant
Derek Joseph
There is a romanticized version of how the ancientEgyptians lived. Because most of the artifacts found belong to the elite class, we have the vision of finely dressed people in crisp white linen, dripping in gold and jewels, surrounded by servants catering to their every desire. While that may be true of the ruling class, most of Egypt was occupied by peasant farmers and laborers. The point of this essay is to dispel some of the misconceptions we have concerning this ancient people and explain what life really was like for the majority of the population.
In ancient Egypt, you belonged to the social class you were born into. Because they believed this class system maintained order in society, there was very little chance of rising above your class. The most they could hope for would be to gain the favor of a noble or official but even that was a rare occurrence.
Although the peasant class represented about eighty percent of the population of ancient Egypt they made up the lowest level of the social pyramid. Despite being of the lowest social class, all of Egyptian society depended on them. They worked as farmers who grew the crops that supplied everyone with food and the laborers who built the bricks and hauled the stone needed for the houses and the...

...Johanna Movassat
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The Egyptian Coffin AfterBurial
As a child, ancientegyptianhistory was my escape. I would sit under my covers for hours reading books I had recently checked out from my city library about pharaohs, pyramids, and my favorite subject of all, Cleopatra. When visiting The Rosicrucian Museum of San Jose, I felt like a child agin. While touring the many different exhibits, I became more excited and interested one after another. After carefully reviewing over 4 pairs of artifacts, I chose to compare and contrast a predynastic box coffin and a Middle Kingdom coffin. The predynastic box coffin dates back to 3200 B.C.E and is not adorned with any afterlife offerings or scriptures, while the coffin of Lady Mesehti is adorned extravagantly. I believe these two coffins show how the egyptian civilization progressed, from modest beginnings to how the egyptians viewed wealth in the afterlifeafter prosperity. (Rosicrucian Museum)
At first glance, the early dynastic coffin appears to be some sort of crate or chest. After further investigation, I came to learn that ancient Egypt’s unique traditions were largely formed during the early dynastic period. During this time, prosperity and...

...Religious practices of ancientEgyptians
Religion is the glue that binds local communities into nationhood and creates common understandings and shared values that are essential to the growth of a civilization. No religion is fully formed at its inception. One of the most interesting aspects of ancient Egypt is its religion. Like all religions, that of ancient Egypt was complex. They believed that there were multitudes of deities presenting. One of the proofs of it is that there were a lot of mythologies in Ancient Egypt.
The king of Egypt, who was called pharaoh, was believed to possess a divine power even though he was a human. His job was to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings. AncientEgyptians dedicated a lot of resources to the performance of those rituals and to the construction of the temples. Those religious practices were efforts to provide for the gods and gain their favor, so that individual could also interact with gods for their own purposes through prayer or magic.
Elaborating afterlife beliefs and funerary practices were also important aspects of the religion. AncientEgyptians made great efforts to ensure the survival of their souls after death by providing tombs, grave goods, and offerings to preserve the bodies and spirits of the deceased. They believed...

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...This is the north wall of Tutankhamun's Burial Chamber, it is showing three different images, Tutankhamun, as the living embodiment of Horus who was the son of Osiris,wearing the double crown with the uraeus complete with the flail and crook regalia, Tutankhamun depicted as Osiris the father of all Egypt and Tutankhamun depicted as his Ka.
These images can be interpreted as Tutankhamun depicted as the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. The North Wall depicts three important rituals – the Opening the Mouth ritual, the reincarnation or resurrection of the king, and the final ritual in which Tutankhamun and his life-force or spirit embraces Osiris, patron of the Underworld and the dead.
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This is the east wall of Tutankhamun's Burial Chamber, the painting is a depiction of the funeral procession of King Tut, he is being pulled on a sledge and the twelve people pulling him are said to be all extremely important to him. They are all depicted wearing white sandals which were worn at holy or sacred ceremonies. The white headbands were also worn at funerals.
There are several groups of people depicted, including Ay, the king's successor, Maya, the King's Treasurer, General Horemheb, who would shortly succeed Ay, two visors and a number of High Priests.
This is the south wall of Tutankhamun's Burial...

...Annotated Bibliography: New Kingdom Egyption Jewellry
In AncientEgyptian culture, an amulet, is a small object that a person wears, carries, or offers to a deity because he or she believes that it will magically bestow a particular power or form of protection. The conviction that a symbol, form, or concept provides protection, promotes well-being, or brings good luck is common to all societies, in our own, we commonly wear religious symbols, carry a favorite penny, or a rabbit's foot. In ancient Egypt, amulets might be carried, used in necklaces, bracelets, or rings, and—especially—placed among a mummy's bandages to ensure the deceased a safe, healthy, and productive afterlife. Egyptian amulets functioned in a number of ways. Symbols and deities generally conferred the powers that they represented. Magic contained in an amulet could be understood not only from its shape, but material, color, scarcity, the grouping of several forms, and words said or ingredients rubbed over the amulet could all be the source for magic granting the possessor's wish.
Small representations of animals seem to have functioned as amulets in the Predynastic Period (ca. 4500–3100 B.C.). In the Old Kingdom (ca. 2649–2150 B.C.), most amulets took an animal form or were symbols (often based on hieroglyphs), although generalized, human forms occurred. Amulets depicting recognizable deities begin to appear in the Middle Kingdom...

...Life in Ancient Egypt was one of cycles, dictated by the Nile. The time to plant, the time to harvest, even the time to build, were dictated by its flowing waters. The Nile ruled Egypt for over two thousand years. However in 31 B.C., a new force came to rule Egypt, as it had never been ruled before. The Assyrians, Hyksos, Persians, had all conquered the people of the Nile. Yet later, all had been expelled by the Egyptians. Even the mighty Greeks had been assimilated into the Ptolemies, ruling Egypt as Pharaohs, not as Greeks. However the legions of Rome could not be expelled, nor assimilated. They brought with them little respect for the existing culture, religion, and rulers. They began sweeping yet effective change for the Egyptian people in agriculture, religion, and many aspects of everyday life.
Before the Romans, and even before the Ptolemaic Greeks, Egypt was the land of Pharaohs. The Pharaoh or the king, was the ruler of all. "He or she was in theory the only landholder, the only priest, the only judge and the only warrior" , in ancient Egypt. In practice, he or she surrounded himself with ministers and officials who worked under the supervision of the vizier. This was how Egypt had been run for thousands of years, through several dynasties. Foreign groups had invaded, been driven back, and even conquered themselves by the Egyptians. The...